


You Can Bond Over This Kind of Thing, Right?

by radio_antlers



Category: Gotham Academy (Comics), Lumberjanes
Genre: Again, F/F, He tries anyway, Hurt/Comfort, bonding over terrible home lives, colton has no idea how to talk about serious things, isn't it obvious that molly is my favorite character?, mal is just trying to take care of her girlfriend
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-08
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:28:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,762
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27953135
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/radio_antlers/pseuds/radio_antlers
Summary: "I must've royally screwed up in my past life to end up with parents this awful."Or, the Molly Powell/Colton Rivera friendship fic that nobody asked for.
Relationships: Kyle Mizoguchi/Colton Rivera, Mal Yoo/Molly (Lumberjanes)
Kudos: 10





	You Can Bond Over This Kind of Thing, Right?

**Author's Note:**

> To make a long story short, I had to write something about my favorite comic characters and their implied friendship. Inspired by one of the variant covers for the Lumberjanes/Gotham Academy crossover volume.

Molly sat outside on the cabin porch, arms propped up on her scraped knees, silently watching the sun disappear behind the forest lining. The combined noise of her fellow Roanokes and their new friends from Gotham Academy leaked through the windows, but it sounded faint compared to the rattling ruckus happening in her head at the moment. 

Today had been a little hectic, to be blunt about it. Screw everything that had previously happened that summer; getting kidnapped and taken all the way back to 1986 for a birthday party tops pretty much anything else. And Mal wore a dress, which just added to the weirdness. Molly could distinctly remember Mal telling her that she would rather go live in the dimension of lost things with Nellie than wear a girly dress, but that’s besides the point. 

Seeing the awful rut Louise had dug for herself almost felt like a smack to the face. She had been so desperate for her sixteenth birthday to work out that she’d created a time loop that was nearly impossible to break free from. It made Molly sick to her stomach; she felt like she was being called out. I mean, she was the one that went to great lengths to literally slow down time so she wouldn’t have to go back home. She still didn’t want to go home. Everyone was aware of it, but whenever they’d ask her why, she’d just…clam up and shut down, because there were a million reasons as to why, but she could never find the right words to explain them.

The wind whistled so loudly around her she didn’t even notice the cabin door had creaked open and someone had sat down beside her. It like she’d been captivated by the scene in front of her, the beautiful reminder that her time at camp was slowly tick, tick, ticking away. Honestly, she would’ve gone on being oblivious to the brunet boy sitting next to her had he not put a hand on her shoulder and made her jump a foot in the air.

It was just Colton – thank Agatha Christie. He broke out in an amused grin as he saw the shock wear off of Molly’s face, replaced with a playful sneer. “Why so jumpy, Powell? Afraid of getting sucked back to the Greenwood Lodge?” 

A small laugh tumbled from Molly’s lips as she shrugged Colton’s hand off of her shoulder, her green gaze going back to the horizon, littered with pink-shadowed clouds, like a frame straight out of one of Ripley’s animes. “No, just thinking. What’re you doing out here?”

Molly and Colton had become quick friends once the Roanokes and Gotham Academy kids had a chance to get formally acquainted with each other. They just clicked, in some odd way, and stuck close together until Mal, Kyle, and Ripley had shown up. And Maps had labeled them as an ideal team-up for “Serpents and Spells,” so their fate was pretty much sealed after that. 

“Just getting some fresh air,” Colton replied, raking a hand through his shaggy hair. “I’m also, like, 90% sure that Ripley and Maps have made it their mission to drive me to the bug house and back before we leave, and it was starting to work. I’m sure you understand, yeah?”

Did she ever! Ripley had never been too much of a problem (she wasn’t a problem at all, in fact; Molly adored her), but her two little sisters back home were a completely different story. They drove her absolutely wild and were clearly unaware of the saying “snitches get stitches,” if you catch my drift. 

Molly nodded. “Is that Maps’ usual agenda, or is this just because she found someone as strange and unique as her and wants to make the most of it?” 

“Nah,” Colton shook his head, “she bugs everyone the same. I think they’re just picking on me specifically since everyone else is busy.” 

Oh, yeah, Molly and Colton weren’t the only ones who had formed some pretty tight bonds. Ripley and Maps had clearly hit it off, far before anyone else had, along with Jo and Pomeline, April and Olive, and Mal and Kyle. The fact that Maps had paired all of them up in “Serpents and Spells” was just a coincidence. 

They sat in silence for a bit, with Molly watching the stars pop out from beneath the vibrant oranges and reds of the sky and Colton twisting a leftover firecracker in his fingers. The noise from inside the cabin leaked through the windows, the incoherent speech and yells serving as some “chaotic good” background noise. Molly preferred it over the honking car horns and sirens that made up the day-to-day soundtrack of New York. 

“What do you like about this place?” Colton asked suddenly, tilting his sunglasses down at a slight angle so he could better see his dimmed surroundings. “Like, summer camp is cool and all, but what makes this specific place so special?”

Molly chewed her bottom lip, thinking it over. Gosh, there were so many answers to Colton’s question and not enough time to list them all; if she really wanted to, she could easily write a thirteen page essay on why this place was so amazing and why it was so much better than her own home. But there wasn’t enough time for Colton to hear all of those reasons and Molly didn’t want to bore him with them.

“It’s difficult to describe,” Molly began, shifting in the other boy’s direction. “This camp is so, so unlike where I live, but I feel more at home here than I do there. I can be myself here unapologetically; I don’t have to hide my interests, I don’t have to keep everything bottled up, and I don’t have to be scared that there’s going to be someone ready to shove me to the dirt and remind me how blatantly wrong they think I am every single time I turn a corner!” She paused, feeling the weight of welling tears gathering by her eyelashes. She wiped them away with the back of her hand, recomposing herself before wrapping up her explanation. “Being here, with Mal and everyone else, feels right for me, just like I’m sure being at the academy with the Detective Club feels right for you.” 

She sighed, dropping her head onto her crossed arms as Colton blinked at her. He hadn’t been expecting to get that much of an emotional reaction from her. He just hoped that Mal didn’t decide to step outside; he didn’t doubt that she could beat the crap out of him if he gave her a reason to, and indirectly making her girlfriend cry seemed like it would be reason enough. 

“That was…wow.” He said after a while, making Molly chuckle. “Have you ever considered writing poetry?”

Molly lifted her head up, rolling her eyes and playfully elbowing him. “Oh, be quiet. I’m sure you could give me the same, sappy spiel about how much you love Gotham Academy and how you feel so much happier there than you do at home.” 

Colton nodded. “I would, but I’m not going to. I can’t, as a matter of fact. Even though I have some groovy friends and the academy is indeed better than my house, it’s still school, and people are still awful. I still have tests and homework, the Detective Club still manages to get in trouble every week, and I still have to keep up with my secret firework game. My life isn’t all chumming with Greek goddesses or fighting cryptids every day; It’s just normal. Well, as normal as it can be when your professor gets shot back to the 1980s, but as you can tell, that one doesn’t happen too often.” 

He was purposely leaving out having to cope with the reality of the guy he was super into still being hopelessly in love with another girl. The last thing he wanted to do was dump all of his problems on Molly. She clearly had a lot to deal with already. Although, Molly did seem like the kind of person he could vent to without any repercussions. 

“My brain feels too heavy sometimes,” Molly mumbled. “Like, dealing with the weird time thing here and being unable to ignore the fact that I’m going to have to go home eventually is just too much to handle sometimes, y’know?”

“I get that,” Colton agreed. He stretched out on the porch, keeping his sunglasses clasped against his blazer clad chest. “Things aren’t that crazy at school, but I completely understand the whole “heavy brain” deal. It’s difficult being the only one in the group with a working brain.” 

Molly scoffed. “Sure, we can call it that. But I meant more, like…when you carry so much with you everyday that your head feels like a deadweight by the end.” 

“Baggage,” Colton whispered, his eyes comically bugging out of his head, making the girl sitting next to him quietly giggle.

“Yeah,” Molly nodded. 

He clicked his tongue. “You, uhm, wanna talk about it?” 

Molly heavily debating telling him no and heading inside. If she could hardly talk about this with her cabinmates whom she’d known all summer, then what in the sweet Barbra Streisand was going to allow her to talk to this guy whom she’d met nearly twenty-four hours ago? She opened up about her situation (I suppose that’s what they were calling it now) to Mal a few weeks ago and had a good cry, but was she really about to be that vulnerable with Colton Rivera, of all people? 

But, on the other hand, her and Colton weren’t that different. 

“There’s not much to talk about,” Molly replied, tugging on the end of her braid. “My mom wanted the perfect daughter, and I was the exact opposite of that. I was too tomboyish, too introverted, and just so happened to like girls the way I’m apparently supposed to like boys. She sent me here to “fix” me.”

“Ha,” Colton chuckled, “that backfired in a major way. Not only is this not that kinda camp, but you’ve managed to land yourself a pretty rad girlfriend.”

Molly blushed. “Y-yeah, I guess it kinda did. But I’m happy about it, obviously. Mal is just…amazing. She keeps me from floating off into my own head and never leaving.” She sighed lightly, glancing over her shoulder at the foggy cabin windows, where her friends’ silhouettes were moving about inside. “Do you have someone like that?” 

He began to shake his head, but then slowly started nodding halfway through, confusing the junk out of Molly. “Well, sort of. Not like what you and Mal have – nothing like what you and Mal have, actually. I just have the Detective Club; they have my back and I have theirs. Easy as that.” 

Believe him, Colton wanted something like Molly and Mal’s relationship. He would go as far as to say he yearned for it, and Colton Rivera was never one for that dramatic, “woe-is-me” kind of dialogue. He was a strong realist, much to Maps’ annoyance. Dramatic entrances, though; that was definitely his jam. He was pretty good at them, too, if he did say so himself. Perks of knowing your way around explosives. 

“I’m sorry about your mom, by the way,” he said after a while, tossing the girl beside him a kind, empathetic look. “My dad is kinda the same way. Not the nicest person when it comes to these things, heh heh…”

“You don’t deserve that,” Molly said back, her voice hushed and sleepy-sounding. “You’re too good for that.”

“Neither of us do,” Colton tacked on, propelling his upper body forward and hunching over his knees with a grunt. “Our parents are just old fashioned, and no matter how badly we want them to stop being such uptight jerks, there’s really nothing we can do to change that. We just have to wait until we’re eighteen, and it’ll be smooth sailing from there!”

Molly’s face crumpled into a sour expression, the one she only developed when she thought about home. Colton hesitantly placed a comforting hand on her shoulder, and she didn’t move away this time. 

“If it’s any consolidation, I’m glad I got the chance to meet you. Good to know I’m not the only one stuck in the “terrible parent” category.”

That seemed to cheer her up. The look of despair melted from her face and was replaced by a tiny smile; a genuinely happy one. “Thanks, Colton. You’ll always be my favorite irresponsible arsonist.” 

Now, in this situation, two people would normally embrace in a sympathetic, platonic way, but A) Colton wasn’t sure how Molly would react to that – she didn’t seem to enjoy being touched in any way by anyone who wasn’t her girlfriend – and B) Mal stepped outside the cabin right as he was contemplating it, so Colton figured it’d be better to just not and save himself from possibly making Mal angry. I dunno, there’s just something slightly intimidating about an angry lady. There’s something slightly intimidating about an angry anybody, now that I think about it. 

“Hey, guys!” Mal greeted, standing beside Molly, who reached up and intertwined their fingers, resting her pale cheek against her hand. Mal’s face flashed pink. “What’re you doing out here?” 

“Talking,” Molly mumbled, and Colton nodded in agreement, an anxious smile plastered across his face. “Escaping the chaos inside our cabin.” 

Mal smirked, sitting down beside her. “Oh, come on. You know you love the chaos.” 

Molly yawned, a sound that Mal has always described as a sound similar to that of a mewling kitten, because it was cute, just like her. She rested her head on Mal’s shoulder, soft green eyes fluttering closed. She was pretty tired; today had definitely been something special. 

“Thanks for coming out here with her,” Mal quietly said to Colton, who’s sunglasses – in a somewhat panicked rush – been crookedly placed back on his face. “Otherwise, she might’ve wandered about her own mind for who knows how long.” A bitty laugh forced itself from Mal’s mouth, and she wrapped a secure arm around Molly’s waist as the latter’s breathing began to slow.

“Y’know, she was saying something about that earlier,” the brunet boy recalled. “Does that happen regularly or…?” 

Mal shrugged. “Sometimes. Now, if you’d excuse us,” she began, hooking her other arm underneath Molly’s knees and lifting her up from the cabin porch, cradling her flush against her chest; it was odd, Molly looked so small in Mal’s arms, “I’m gonna get her to bed. Night, dude.”

It was completely dark outside now, the only light source being the full moon in the sky and the dimmed lanterns from inside the cabin. Stars crowded the horizon, making everything seem so vastly insignificant, so…small. Colton hadn’t seen anything like it before in real life; perhaps he should look outside his dorm window every now and then. Without the dorky sunglasses, as cool as he thought they made him look. 

The Roanoke cabin door creaked open again, but it wasn’t one of the girls. It was just Kyle, presumably coming to beckon his friend inside. He, unlike the rest of the Detective Club members, was still mighty skeptical of the woods, especially since the campers had told him all about the weird shenanigans they’d gotten up to the past handful of weeks. 

“You should really come inside, Colton,” Kyle advised, leaning against the doorframe. “Wouldn’t wanna get kidnapped again.” 

He rolled his eyes behind his shades. “I’m not scared of them. I’ve got everything I need to create a mass explosion right in my backpack. Those things should be scared of me!” 

“Sure,” the lankier boy said sarcastically. “But seriously, please come inside. You obviously don’t worry about your personal safety, so I have to.”

Colton felt the familiar, blushy warmth flood his face, and was suddenly so grateful that it was pitch black outside. Putting on a façade of annoyance, he sighed and pushed himself up off the porch, theatrically making his way to the cabin door, bringing a dopey grin to Kyle’s face in the process. Kyle slung an arm over his shoulder as they walked inside, pushing the door closed with the back of his heel, yet again unaware of the red hue he’d caused to splatter all over his friend’s face. Maybe one day he’d notice it. 

The Detective Club was definitely going to have to plan a field trip back to Miss Quinzella’s next summer.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope this wasn't too terrible, this was my first time trying to write Colton. Anyway, I feel like these two would be great friends in canon, they just vibe so well together in my opinion :)


End file.
